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Essentially Cool: Acer’s Timeline Notebooks

By Stephen Williams April 10, 2009 4:46 pmApril 10, 2009 4:46 pm

Acer Timeline series laptop.

As fast as the computer industry moves, Acer seems to move faster.

Spearheading the netbook movement and regularly undercutting the higher-priced spreads of laptops offered by the competition, Acer is surging ahead in market share, and while it’s still chasing Hewlett-Packard and Dell, the company, which is based in Taiwan, is not letting up.

Just this week, the company unwrapped its Timeline series of notebooks, with prices starting at about $700. That’s $700 for Acer’s flagship product. Power-saving is the angle with the Timelines, as Acer claims up to 8 hours of battery life with a conventional hard drive, and 10 hours with a solid-state drive. The heaviest model in the lineup is just more than five pounds; the lightest is 3.5 pounds. Compare the Timeline to Dell’s new Adamo, selling at more than twice the price.

And as for the cool factor, well, it’s evident. The Aspire Timelines promise to turn the heat down with their “Laminar Wall Jet” technology, which is supposed to redirect cooling air along the bottom side of the notebook. Developed with Intel, Laminar Wall Jet incorporates a design used to cool turbine blades. Cool!

There are a few screen sizes, from 13 inches to 15 inches, an Apple-like trackpad that supports pinch functions, and scads of options and add-ons. “We are confident we have exceeded our customers’ expectations once again,” said Acer’s chief executive, Gianfranco Lanci.

Mr. Lanci said in an interview with Business Week that his company’s low overhead and outsourcing strategies gave Acer an edge in aggressively cutting prices. The company is also jumping into the smartphone market. “To run a business with lower costs is good when the market is growing,” Mr. Lanci said. “It’s even better when the market is not growing.”

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